Optus Satellite now has a business relationship with NZX-listed TeamTalk Ltd. subsidiary, Farmside, to deliver broadband services for remote New Zealand communities.
Farmside is a rural broadband Internet specialist based on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The agreement will see the delivery of satellite Internet services to Farmside’s residential, farming and business customers in remote and rural locations across New Zealand.
As part of the arrangement, Farmside will be using Optus partner Gateway Teleport to provide the earth station access to the Optus D2 satellites’ dedicated New Zealand payload, which was launched in 2007. The D2 satellite is stationed north-west of New Zealand at the 152 degrees East geostationary orbital location.
According to Optus Satellite Vice President, Paul Sheridan, his company has a long history in New Zealand of providing primarily payTV services and are continuing to expand their range of services and affiliations such as Farmside. Due to the topography and population location diversity in New Zealand, telecommunications services become a real challenge, and the delivery of these services via satellite will improve the Internet connectivity for customers. And, as added by Stuart Cooper, the General Manager of Farmside, the Optus delivered access is a digital lifeline that will bring to customers increased data caps and improved speeds.